I truly love what I do and coming to Lincoln every day. Our staff and students are Amazing!
I grew up in a challenging area in San Bernardino, California. There were many obstacles facing youth in that area. I learned how to overcome challenges and persevere through influences in school and in the neighborhood. One consistency in my life has been around education. My dad taught science for 40 years, and my mom taught math for 35 years. I started tutoring many subjects in middle school, including math, science and spelling. I also tutored extra-curricular activities such as dominoes and chess. It was clear to me at a very young age I wanted to be in a career where I helped kids learn.
I continued tutoring math, science, dominoes and chess through high school where I played football, soccer and baseball. I was part of multiple championship teams in football and soccer. I led our high school chess team to a state title and also won a couple local domino tournaments.
In college, I focused more attention on tutoring math to students in middle school to college. I was not a traditional student in college. At one point, I dropped out for more than 3 years. During this time, I worked several miscellaneous jobs, including at the airport with Federal Express, waiting tables at Marie Calendar’s, cutting and hauling at a Christmas tree farm, landscaper, apartment manager, and busboy at La Rosita’s. Through my time away from school, I continued tutoring students in math. This is what brought me back to school. A student of mine told me that I taught better than his teacher. I once again enrolled at California State University in San Bernardino where I graduated 3 years later after 4 consecutive quarters on the Dean’s list.
I taught 5 years at San Bernardino High School while concurrently earning my first master’s degree in secondary education with emphasis in cross-cultural, language and academic development. I moved to Colorado in 2006. In Greeley, I taught at Northridge High School for 3 years and then Jefferson Alternative High School for 1 year. I was also a district math coach for 2 years. I earned my second master’s degree in educational leadership from Colorado State University. I went to work as assistant principal and athletic director at Adams City High School in Commerce City. Two years later, I got an assistant principal job closer to home, here at Lincoln Middle, an IB World School. This was one of the best moments of my career.!
In the second semester of 2021-22, I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be one of the interim co-principals at Lincoln. 2022-23 is the start of my 9th year at Lincoln, and my first year as principal. As principal, I have been able to establish many community connections and celebrate with our community. Lincoln staff went out to meet families, serve food, play games and build community relations. Then, we hosted a grand gathering at Lincoln at the end of September. I hope to make it to additional stops in our community. It has been truly amazing to build this community together. I have loved every minute of my time at Lincoln. I look forward to the future!
I am very fortunate to have married my beautiful college sweetheart, Stephanie. We recently celebrated 20 years of marriage. We have 3 wonderful children: Ethan, RJ and Emily. I have family all over the country and Europe and enjoy our adventures traveling to visit, most recently four summers ago to New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. We traveled throughout the North and South island of New Zealand with lifetime family friends who showed us around like only locals can do. There are so many things in Australia and New Zealand that are as breathtaking as you see in travel brochures.
My family means the world to me, and we have made a permanent home in Colorado. Perhaps we will run into you on one of our Colorado adventures in the future...